With The Rings of Power hitting the screens, there is a plethora of information to unpack, and while many of the mysteries the trailers teased have been answers, many more have arisen. The biggest of these has to be the identity of meteor man, with the show only dropping more and more hints, but still shrouded in mystery.
The other, is centered around the character of Arondir, who seems to have taken a liking to the human Bronwyn, their liking for one another not only being instantly obvious to audiences, but apparently also to her fellow villagers, and Arondir’s follow elven soldier. There are subtle hints, whether they are purposefully misleading or not, about how Arondir might actually be the father of Bronwyn's son Theo, but as of yet nothing is confirmed. It certainly wouldn't be the first time an elf and a human have given up everything for each other.
Their love for one another is restrained, but there are a fair few factors that suggest it has been happening for a long time. While traveling together, Arondir says to Bronwyn that she ‘is the only kind touch [he’s] known in all [his] days in this land’ suggesting there is more history between them than what is shown now, the use of ‘touch’ also hinting at more of a physical relationship.
This is not the start of their relationship. Arondir instantly and visibly notices and reacts to her presence during the first scene he is introduced in the Southlands Inn. They meet outside, and they flirt a bit over a bottle of rare seedlings, but it feels more like the romance between two old lovers than it does a blossoming new fling. Arondir reveals later in the episode that he has been stationed her looking after/ keeping watch of the people of the area in fear they would repeat the sins of their forefathers, who sided with Morgoth during the Great War. This is plenty of time for him to have grown close to Bronwyn, a short time for an elf but a lifetime for men.
There are various other hints at Arrondir being Theo’s father, the biggest and most obvious is that there is no father in the picture. It seems that Theo does not know who he is, and perhaps has never known, a fellow kid in the village makes a nasty remark to him about his absence. While this alone does not suggest Arondir specifically, the timelines do match up, Arondir having been around for longer than Theo’s lifetime, and as there is nothing more description said about his father other than he’s not around, the vagueness points pretty heavily to the elf.
The next big clue is that Theo has long hair, long enough and styled in such a way that it covers his ears, and while this is fairly common with a lot of the characters, for him this might actually serve a purpose. While it is not known what the offspring of a human and elf would look like, it wouldn’t be too surprising if the child took on some elvish features, and what is more distinctive to their race than their pointed ears.
Knowing this, and trying to keep his heritage secret, he has grown his hair to hide the ears, the only issue with this theory is that this is a pretty big and obvious thing to hide for a person's entire life, and that it would be likely someone would have noticed all this time. He also is suggested to have another elven trait, that of incredibly good hearing. While talking to his mother, he mentions the rats scratching below the floorboards that are keeping him awake all night, something Bronwyn has apparently not heard. This is of course revealed later to be the Orcs digging a hold, burrowing under their house, but for him to have heard them while still a while away from being under the house, his hearing must have been exceptional.
One last clue might come from Theo’s connection with the black blade, a weapon of darkness most likely left over or handed down through the generations since the Great War. It is very obviously a weapon of great evil and seems to have taken hold of the boy in the typical dark lord sort of way, drawing him in while he obsesses over it. It has some power over him, more so than anyone else, and while this might seem fairly common for such an evil artifact to be able to control the weak (in comparison) minds of men, there is a subtle link that it might have something to do with his heritage and bloodline.
The scene near the end of the second episode shows him holding the sword hilt, and the blood from a fresh wound on his hand begins to travel up and onto the blade. It might just be something the blade does, drawing the life force from whoever wields it, but the link between specifically Theo’s blood and his potential connection to Arondir seems like too much of a coincidence.
While it is still very early days for the Rings of Power series there are a lot of subtle (and not so subtle) hints that there is something going on with the impressionable, moody teenage boy that will carry great importance throughout the season. Some of these clues of course might be trying to lead audiences astray, something the show seems to be quite good at so far, suggesting one thing only for it to suddenly take a different direction, going places that are unexpected.